# The support channels

> The four channels your students use to reach your team: comments, questions, tickets and the FAQ page. What each one is for and where to turn it on.

The support channels are the places where your students talk to your team. There are four: comments, questions, support tickets and the frequently asked questions page. You turn each channel on in **Settings > Support** and reply from the **Support** menu of the dashboard.

**This article is about the support you give your students.** It is not Cademí's support. To talk to Cademí's support about your account, use the support widget inside the dashboard.

## The idea in one minute

Choose the channel with two questions: who can read the message, and does the conversation continue.

- **Comments**: the open conversation below the lesson. The other students of the lesson read it.
- **Questions**: a question about the lesson, with an official answer from your team. The answer can be public or private.
- **Support** (tickets): a private conversation between the student and your team, outside the lesson.
- **FAQ** (frequently asked questions): a page with ready answers, for every student.

**The most important rule:** a personal matter goes in a ticket. Payment, login and access never go in a comment, because the other students of the lesson read it.

Cademí does not answer for you. No channel has an automatic reply.

## Which channel to use

| Channel | Where the student uses it | Who else sees it | Use it for |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Comments** | Below the lesson | The other students of the lesson, depending on review | Discussion among students about the lesson |
| **Questions** | Below the lesson | Whoever asked; others only with a public answer | A content question with an official answer |
| **Support** (tickets) | Its own page in the student area | Only the student and your team | Payment, access, certificate, personal matters |
| **FAQ** | Its own page in the student area | Every student, once published | The same answer, given before |

Each channel works in its own way:

- A **comment** is a one-level conversation: the comment and the replies to it.
- A **question** is not a conversation. The student asks once. The team publishes one answer and can replace it later.
- A **ticket** is a back-and-forth. It stays open until someone closes it.

If the student needs to keep talking, use the ticket.

| You want | Use | Avoid | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Students discussing the lesson | Comments | A question for every remark | The answer to a question is an entry, not a chat |
| Answer "what is minute 12?" for everyone | A public answer to the question | A ticket | The next student will ask again |
| Answer this student only | A private answer to the question, or a ticket | A comment | The other students of the lesson read the comment |
| Payment, login, "module 3 is locked" | A ticket, then the access diagnosis | A lesson comment | It is personal; comments do not fix access |
| Stop repeating the same answer | A FAQ entry | Copying the answer into every ticket | The FAQ entry lives on a page |

## How to turn each channel on and off

Everything lives in **Settings > Support**. The page has four tabs: **Comments**, **Questions**, **Support** and **FAQ**.

1. Open **Settings > Support**.
2. Click the channel's tab.
3. Turn on the channel's switch: **Comments on lessons**, **Questions on lessons**, **Support channel** or **Frequently asked questions page**.
4. Fill in the settings that appear.
5. Save with the save bar.

The save bar saves the four tabs together.

When a channel is off, it disappears from the student area menu. In the dashboard, its inbox shows **Comments disabled** or **Questions disabled** and asks you to enable it in the settings. What was already written is kept.

What each tab sets:

- **Comments**:
  - what the student sees: **Channel name** and **Comment field text**;
  - for your team only: **Show student tags**;
  - your inbox: **Sort by** and **Open in a new tab**;
  - under **Comment protections**: **Review comments before publishing**, **Minimum characters** and **Interval between comments**.
- **Questions**:
  - what the student sees: **Channel name** and **Question field text**;
  - your inbox: **Sort by** and **Open in a new tab**;
  - under **Question protections**: **Review questions before publishing** and **Minimum characters**.
- **Support**: **Open in a new tab**.
- **FAQ**: **Page title** and **Guidance message**.

**Channel name** shows in the student area menu and on the lesson tab. For example: you can call comments "Discussion". The support channel keeps the name **Support**.

Each setting is explained in the channel's article: [Comments](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/atendimento/comentarios.md), [Questions](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/atendimento/duvidas.md), [Support tickets](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/atendimento/chamados.md) and [Frequently asked questions](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/atendimento/perguntas-frequentes.md).

## Where your team replies

In the dashboard, the **Support** menu has **Comments**, **Questions**, **Support** and **FAQ**.

- **Comments**, **Questions** and **Support** open an inbox with three panels. The list is on the left and the conversation in the middle. **Details** is on the right, with the student and the actions.
- **FAQ** is a list of questions, with no queue.

**The menu counters.** Next to each channel, a number shows what is waiting for your team:

- Under **Comments**: the student comments and replies awaiting approval.
- Under **Questions**: the unanswered questions.
- Under **Support**: the new tickets, the reopened tickets and the tickets where the student spoke last.

A ticket your team answered leaves the count, even while open. The number counts only what that administrator can see. Without permission on a channel, neither the channel nor its counter shows.

**Open in a new tab.** By default, a click on a row in the queue opens the conversation in the panel beside it. With **Open in a new tab** on for the channel, the conversation opens in a new browser tab. The queue stays where it is.

## Who on your team sees what

- Each channel has its own permission. An administrator only sees in the menu the channels they can open.
- An administrator limited to some products sees comments and questions only from those products. The ticket queue is not split by product.
- In tickets, a department's **Responsible** only shows who looks after that queue. They do not receive the tickets or get a separate inbox. Any administrator with access to the channel replies.

**To take a student out of a channel**, use the **Edit student** form in their profile. It has **Comments**, **Questions** and **Support**.

- The channel turned off disappears for that student only. Their access to the content continues.
- What they already wrote stays in the queue.
- The FAQ page cannot be blocked per student.

See [Student profile](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/alunos/perfil-do-aluno.md).

## Before you answer an access complaint

**Heads up: this is where most mistakes happen.** A student opens a ticket: "I cannot see the lesson". The team answers "try again tomorrow". Tomorrow, the module is still locked. The cause is almost always the enrollment, an end date, a suspension or a release rule. The lesson is rarely broken.

Before you answer, follow [Why the student cannot access](https://help.cademi.cloud/en/alunos/por-que-o-aluno-nao-acessa.md).

## What the student is notified about

The student gets the notices inside the student area. They get no email.

| What happened | Who gets the notice |
|---|---|
| Your team replied to their comment | The comment's author, on every reply from your team |
| Your team published the answer to a question | Whoever asked, once, even with a private answer |
| Your team replied in a ticket | The student, on every reply |
| The ticket was closed | The student |

These do not send a notice: correcting a reply, saving a draft, reopening a question and a student talking to another student.

## Good to know

- **Support metrics.** **Reports > Support** shows the volume by channel and the time to first reply. It also shows the workload per agent and the tickets by department.
- **No automatic deadline.** No deadline escalates or closes a ticket on its own.
- **Student view.** In it, what you write in a comment goes out under your administrator name. Questions and tickets cannot be opened from there.
- **Events for integrations.** Support actions produce events for your integrations: comment posted, question answered (public answer only), ticket opened, replied, reopened and closed, FAQ created, updated and deleted.

## Frequently asked questions

**A student wrote about payment in a comment. What do I do?** Ask them to open a ticket. The other students of the lesson read comments.

**I turned a channel off. Do the old messages disappear?** No. The channel disappears from the student menu, but what was already written is kept.

**A teammate does not see the Questions menu.** Each channel has its own permission. Without the channel's permission, neither the channel nor its counter shows.